Typhoon Haiyan: a relief worker's reflections

Sherri Grady, a nurse with Toronto's Sick Kids hospital, flew to the Philippines in November with Médecins Sans Frontières to provide relief aid to typhoon victims. Here is her final dispatch from the disaster zone.

AP Photo/David Guttenfelder

Typhoon Haiyan survivors walk through ruins in the Philippino village of Maraboth on Nov. 14, 2013.

The above picture was taken just one day before Sherri Grady, a nurse at Toronto's Sick Kids hospital, got a call from Medecins Sans Frontieres, informing her that she would be leaving for the Philippines to help with disaster relief. In between treating patients and navigating the ruins of Typhoon Haiyan, Sherri has also been answering the Toronto Star's questions about living and working in a disaster zone. You can read her dispatches
here
,
here
and
here
.

Today, Sherri is back safe and sound and has resumed her regular life in Toronto and at Sick Kids. We caught up with her to ask a few final questions about leaving the typhoon-torn country she called home for six weeks.

How did you spend your final day in the Philippines?

My final day on the project was bittersweet. Closing a mission can be a tedious experience, involving detailed stock counts and inventories, and this time was no different. But this time, I
was
touched by a very different sentiment: hope.

In the past, project handovers have been met with feelings of fear and insecurity, from both national staff and our beneficiaries. As my staff and I packed up the medical supplies, identifying those for donation, I was struck by the positivity of my team. What a great feeling to have, as we sat and reflected on the work we had done; to be able to look back with pride and confidence that the time was right to leave and that the health of our beneficiaries was in good hands; that the health care systems we were leaving behind were both prepared and more then capable to meet the needs of the population.

What do you think are the most urgent challenges that now need to be met in the Philippines?

There still remains extensive logistical and WATSAN (water and sanitation) needs in Leyte province. Power has yet to reach the rural areas of the province and damage to many wells and pipelines have yet to be repaired.

As I left, however, I continued to see steps being taken to improve people's immediate living conditions. As a nurse I have built an expertise in the domain of public health, but can't help but wonder what will happen over the next few years, as families face the loss of crops and income. They say it could take a generation for the coconut plantations to get back to where they were prior to Yolanda (the local name for Typhoon Haiyan) and I worry what will happen in the meantime, when international aid wanes and families are left to rebuild their livelihoods?

You’ve now responded to two natural disasters; Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the earthquake in Haiti. In what ways have the two been different? In what ways have they been similar?

It is hard to draw comparisons between Haiti and the Philippines. What stands out for me in both situations is the power and strength of the human spirit – the human capacity for generosity, compassion and hope in the face of overwhelming loss. Being witness to this is both a gift and a challenge to me, asking me to examine my own life and experiences and to strive to do better, to be better.

Notably different to me between the two countries was the level of national preparedness and organization, two factors that greatly improved the Philippines ability to quickly recover and respond to the human needs in the face of disaster. Sadly, this expertise in disaster response that the Philippines has was borne out of lifetimes of natural disasters and in this era of climate change I have to wonder… What comes next?

What did you think about on the airplane as it lifted off the tarmac and took you away from the Philippines?

Leaving the Philippines I was filled with feelings of pride and gratitude. As the plane took off I took some time to reflect on my experiences and the amazing individuals I had been honoured to meet. It is a rare and beautiful thing to come home with no regrets, no ghosts to haunt me, and no uncertainties about where we have been or what will happen next.

I wondered how I would explain my time in the Philippines to family and friends at home. What would I say when they asked, "How was it"? How would I put into a few words the experiences I have had?

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